Systems and methods for providing search results

• US 7,996,391 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2005
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Gomes, Benedict, Lin, Walt, Castro, Luis
• Primary Examiner(s): BOCCIO, VINCENT F
• Application Number:
  US11/155,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20060287985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,241 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/7, 707/999.003, 707/723, 707/725, 707/727, 715/734, 715/745, 715/760, 715/789
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A method includes generating search results in response to a user query, where at least one of the search results includes a group of links. The group of links may represent links to web pages within a same web site and may be identified based on at least one factor associated with the links. The method may also include providing the search results to the user.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory memory devices that store instructions executable by at least one processor to perform a method comprising:

storing web page information for each particular web site of a plurality of different web sites, the web page information, for the particular web site, including information regarding a plurality of web pages from a domain associated with the particular web site, the information regarding the plurality of web pages being stored based on at least one factor that reflects a quantity of times that the plurality of web pages has been accessed by a plurality of users or an amount of time that the plurality of users spent accessing the plurality of web pages;

receiving a search query from a client device;

performing a search to identify search results based on the search query, where a plurality of the search results corresponds to web pages that are associated with a plurality of web sites, where at least two of the plurality of web sites are associated with different domains;

identifying one of the web pages as an identified web page that corresponds to one of the plurality of search results;

identifying a web site, of the plurality of web sites, as an identified web site with which the identified web page is associated;

reading the web page information associated with the identified web site, the web page information identifying a plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site; and

providing information regarding the plurality of search results for presentation on a display of the client device, where the information regarding the plurality of search results includes, for the one of the plurality of search results, information regarding the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site.

2. The one or more memory devices of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an order, in which the information regarding the plurality of web pages is presented on the display of the client device, based on the at least one factor associated with each of the plurality of web pages.

3. The one or more memory devices of claim 1, where the information regarding the plurality of web pages comprises links to the plurality of web pages.

4. The one or more memory devices of claim 1, where identifying the web site includes:

determining a web site identifier from information associated with the identified web page, the web site identifier corresponding to a home page of the identified web site, and

storing the web site identifier as an index to other web pages associated with the identified web site.

5. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory device to store web page information for each particular web site of a plurality of different web sites, the web page information, for the particular web site, including a plurality of links to a corresponding plurality of web pages from a domain associated with the particular web site, the plurality of links to the corresponding plurality of web pages being stored based on a quantity of times that the corresponding plurality of web pages has been accessed by a plurality of users; and

a search engine to;

receive a search query from a user,

perform a search to generate search results based on the search query, where a plurality of the search results correspond to web pages that are associated with a plurality of web sites, where at least two of the plurality of web sites are associated with different domains,

identify one of the web pages as an identified web page that corresponds to one of the plurality of search results,

identify a particular one of the plurality of web sites with which the identified web page is associated,

access the memory device to identify a group of links, of the plurality of links, associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites, each link, in the group of links, corresponding to a respective web page,

determine an order for the group of links based on the quantity of times that each of the respective web pages has previously been accessed, and

provide the search results and the group of links, in the determined order, to the user.

6. The system of claim 5, where, when determining an order for the group of links, the search engine orders the group of links based on an estimation as to whether the user will access the respective web page corresponding to each of the respective links.

7. The system of claim 5, where the search results and the group of links are provided to the user for output via a user interface, the order for the group of links is further based on a measure of quality of each link in the group of links.

8. The system of claim 5, where, when identifying the particular one of the plurality of web sites, the search engine is to:

determine a web site identifier from information associated with the identified web page, the web site identifier corresponding to a home page of the particular one of the plurality of web sites, and

storing the web site identifier as an index to other web pages associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites.

9. A method performed by one or more server devices, comprising:

collecting information regarding accesses of web pages, corresponding to a plurality of different web sites, by a plurality of users;

storing, in a memory, web page information for each particular web site of the plurality of different web sites, the web page information, for the particular web site, identifying a domain associated with the particular web site and information regarding a plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the particular web site, the information regarding the plurality of web pages being stored, for each web page of the plurality of web pages, based on a quality factor that reflects a number of times that the web page has been accessed by the plurality of users;

receiving, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a search query from a user via a client device;

performing, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a search, based on the search query, to generate search results, where a plurality of the search results correspond to a plurality of web sites associated with a plurality of different domains;

identifying, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, one of the plurality of web sites as an identified web site corresponding to one of the plurality of search results;

determining, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, whether the memory stores web page information for the identified web site;

identifying, from the memory, the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site based on the quality factors associated with the plurality of web pages when the memory stores web page information for the identified web site; and

providing, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the search results for presentation on a display of the client device, where providing the search results includes;

providing the one of the plurality of search results and a plurality of links to web pages, of the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site, when the memory stores web page information for the identified web site, and

providing the one of the plurality of search results without links to web pages, of the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site, when the memory does not store web page information for the identified web site.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

storing, for each of the plurality of web pages, link information associated with the web page.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sorting the link information for the plurality of web pages based on the number of times that the plurality of web pages has been accessed.

12. The method of claim 9, where the providing the one of the plurality of search results and the plurality of links to the web pages includes:

providing the plurality of links, for presentation on the display of the client device, in an order where a link to a more frequently accessed one of the web pages is presented higher in the order than a link to a less frequently accessed one of the web pages.

13. The method of claim 9, where the quality factor is further based on an amount of time spent by the plurality of users when accessing each of the plurality of web pages.

14. The method of claim 9, where the quality factor is further based on a number of web pages with a link pointing to one of the plurality of web pages.

15. The method of claim 9, where the quality factor is further based on items purchased via each of the plurality of web pages.

16. The method of claim 9, where the quality factor is further based on prior behavior, of the plurality of users, with respect to the plurality of web pages.

17. The method of claim 9, where providing the one of the plurality of search results and the plurality of links to the web pages comprises:

including text with each respective link of the plurality of links, the text comprising text located on the web page corresponding to the respective link.

18. The method of claim 9, where providing the one of the plurality of search results and the plurality of links to the web pages comprises:

presenting text with each of the plurality of links.

19. The method of claim 9, where providing the one of the plurality of search results and the plurality of links to the web pages comprises:

providing the plurality of links for presentation on the display of the client device below presentation of the one of the plurality of search results on the display of the client device.

20. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving information from a provider of one of the plurality of different web sites, the information identifying the plurality of web pages associated with the one of the plurality of different web sites.

21. A system, comprising:

one or more computer devices comprising;

means for storing web page information for each particular web site of a plurality of different web sites, the web page information, for the particular web site, including information regarding a plurality of web pages from a domain associated with the particular web site, where the information regarding the plurality of web pages is stored, for each web page of the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the particular web site, based on a quality factor that reflects a number of times that the web page has been accessed by a plurality of users;

means for receiving a search query from a user via a client device;

means for performing a search, based on the search query, to generate search results, where a plurality of the search results corresponds to a plurality of web sites associated with a plurality of different domains;

means for identifying one of the plurality of web sites as an identified web site corresponding to one of the plurality of search results;

means for determining that web page information is stored for the identified web site;

means for identifying, from the web page information, a set of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site based on the quality factors associated with the set of web pages when the web page information is stored for the identified web site; and

means for providing the search results for presentation on a display of the client device, where the means for providing the search results includes means for providing the one of the plurality of search results and a plurality of links to the web pages, in the set of web pages from the domain associated with the identified web site, when the web page information is stored for the identified web site.

22. The system of claim 21, where the one or more computer devices further comprise:

means for receiving information when one of the plurality of web pages is accessed; and

means for incrementing a count value associated with the one of the plurality of web pages.

23. The system of claim 22, where the one or more computer devices further comprise:

means for assigning an order to the plurality of web pages based on the count values; and

means for presenting the plurality of links to the web pages based on the assigned order.

24. The system of claim 21, where the one or more computer devices further comprise:

means for ranking the plurality of web pages based on at least one of;

a number of previous accesses associated with the plurality of web pages, a number of web pages with a link pointing to one of the plurality of web pages, how closely the search query matches information on each of the plurality of web pages, or a user'"'"'s history associated with accessing each of the plurality of web pages.

25. A method performed by one or more server devices, comprising:

storing web page information for each particular web site of a plurality of different web sites, the web page information, for the particular web site, including information regarding a plurality of web pages from a domain associated with the particular web site, the information regarding the plurality of web pages being stored, for each web page of the plurality of web pages, based on at least one factor that includes a quantity of times that the web page has been accessed by a plurality of users;

receiving a search query from a client device;

performing a search, based on the search query, to identify search results matching the search query, where a plurality of the search results correspond to web pages that are associated with a plurality of web sites, where at least two of the plurality of web sites are associated with different domains;

identifying one of the web pages as an identified web page that corresponds to one of the plurality of search results;

identifying a particular one of the plurality of web sites associated with the identified web page;

reading the web page information associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites, the web page information identifying the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites;

determining an order for the plurality of web pages based on the at least one factor associated with each of the plurality of web pages; and

providing information regarding the plurality of search results for presentation on a display of the client device, where the information regarding the plurality of search results includes, for the one of the plurality of search results, links to the plurality of web pages from the domain associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one factor further comprises information regarding whether users scrolled through the plurality of web pages when the users accessed the plurality of web pages or exited the plurality of web pages without scrolling through the plurality of web pages.

27. The method of claim 25, where identifying the particular one of the plurality of web sites includes:

determining a web site identifier from information associated with the identified web page, the web site identifier corresponding to a home page of the particular one of the plurality of web sites, and

storing the web site identifier as an index to other web pages associated with the particular one of the plurality of web sites.